Due to globalization, it is not an uncommon thing to work with colleagues from different cultural backgrounds. This post will describe an intercultural conflict which occurred during my vacation job at a multi-national company. The main characters in this intercultural conflict involved the two bosses whom I was working under and a new colleague, S from another country. For easy understanding, I will name my two bosses as small boss (a female) and big boss (a male).
S was newly employed by my company to assist small boss. Being an under-probation staff, S was taking leave once every two weeks. To make matters worse, S only informed big boss about his leave, leaving the rest of the department to ponder upon his uninformed disappearance. S’s actions irritated small boss because in Singapore context, S had violated the proper chain of command. I was also not spared in S’s working styles too. S would also order around employees ‘lower’ in position than him rather than ask politely. Furthermore, S would only listen to suggestions coming from big boss and ignore small boss.
In an attempt to find an explanation for S’s working behavior, small boss and I went on to research on S’s cultural background and found something interesting which she shared with me. Her research findings indicated that in S’s country, there is an unofficial gender and strong hierarchical system where males are seen more superior than females. Generally, females receive less education and are less commonly seen in white collar jobs. Thus, S might had felt uncomfortable working under a female boss and refused to report directly to her all the time. Moreover, as a result of the strong hierarchical system present, it might be common practice that superiors would order around their subordinates and not empathize with how their subordinates would feel.
No doubt, the accuracies of our inferences were questionable. There could be a totally different explanation based on S’s cultural background and perspective.
As my vacation drew to an end, I did not have the opportunity to see the resolution to this silent intercultural conflict, but I found out from a fellow colleague that S is currently a permanent staff.
